Google appears to be planning a Play Store spring cleaning. According to The Next Web, the search giant has been sending emails to developers across the globe to alert them it plans to limit visibility of remove Android apps that don’t have a valid privacy policy. You can check the email below:
It makes sense when you consider the Play Store is cluttered with mediocre apps hastily put together only as a means to attract advertising revenue and probably with little or no concern for user privacy.
Google requires for app data policies to be explicitly displayed, so users can easily access and read them. More than that, the privacy policy needs to be posted in a designed filed in the Play Developer Console and from within the Play-distributed app itself.
Apps found to request sensitive permissions (for camera, microphone, accounts, contacts or phone) or user data, but doesn’t include a valid privacy policy will be removed from the Google Play Store.
It seems that up to 1 million of apps in the Google Play Store don’t follow this basic requirement. And it is mostly obscure apps with few downloads that usually break the rules.
But Google is merciful God, so developers have until March 15, 2017 to update their apps to include a clear privacy statement.
However, it’s quite unlikely developers of these shady apps will bother updating their applications. Which only means the Play Store is bound to get cleaner and that’s a good thing.
Google’s move is most likely going to be welcomed by developers who have taken time to ensure users’ data is handled properly, as they will be gaining more visibility in the Play Store with all the clutter removed.
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